Sunday, July 12, 2009

Sermon Series--Sermon #1

Big Words of the Faith:

Predestination

Ephesians 1:3-14

I. Series Introduction

A. John Calvin

This week people around the world celebrated the life of an important man who influenced the lives of people all over the world. No, I am not talking about Michael Jackson. Friday was the 500th birthday of John Calvin.

Jean Cauvin, as he was known at birth, was born on July 10, 1509 in northern France. Training first to become a priest, he switched to the study of law as a teenager. It was during his law studies that he experienced a sudden religious conversion that caused him to break from the Roman Catholic Church. He spent most of his career leading the church in Geneva, Switzerland.

Calvin is best known for his many writings, the most famous of which is probably Institutes of the Christian Religion. His writing and preaching form the basis of Calvinism, a branch of theology taught in thousands of Reformed and Presbyterian churches around the world, including our own. Most historians agree that Calvin’s importance was not limited just to the church and theology, but that his ideas contributed to the rise of major ideas of modern Western thought.

After our service this morning we will celebrate John Calvin’s 500th birthday with birthday cake in the lobby. Please feel free to stay and join us for cake and fellowship immediately after church.

B. Big Words of the Faith

Birthday cake is nice, but I wanted to do something more to celebrate God’s work through John Calvin. This morning, we are beginning a four-week sermon series on the “Big Words of the Faith.” For the next four weeks, I will be focusing on four different “big words” that we often use in this church and in the Reformed tradition. This week we will look at “predestination.” In the next several weeks we will study “the covenant,” “justification,” and “providence.”

For many of you, these words are a part of the very fiber of your being. Some of your earliest memories of the church involve sermons or Sunday school lessons on these terms, and those sermons and lessons form part of the base upon which the Holy Spirit has built your faith.

For others, those memories may not be quite as positive—perhaps you took these lessons for granted, or never quite understood them. Or, perhaps, some of you associate these words with dry doctrines taught repetitively and with little connection to your day-to-day life.

Others of you may have grown up in other religious traditions, or with no religious traditions, and these words often seem to you like code words that mark the user as an “insider,” but reinforce your feeling of being an “outsider.”

So this morning, and in the next few weeks, my goal is to take a fresh look at these “big words” of the faith. For some of you, I hope these next few weeks will be an enjoyable review of some of your most cherished beliefs. For others, perhaps during the next few weeks you will gain a new or increased appreciation of how these words shape our faith as we work it out every day. And for others, maybe the next few weeks will shed a little light on the beliefs we hold dear and will encourage you to think of yourself as the ultimate insider—one of God’s truly loved children, saved through his glorious plan of salvation.

II. Topic Introduction

Our focus this morning is “predestination.” This doctrine can be very difficult for many Christians to understand and accept. We commonly use the word “predestination” to mean God’s decision, made before the world existed, to save certain people, but not others. Predestination means that God has chosen some people for salvation and eternal life, while others are condemned to judgment.

This morning, I am going to focus mostly on the positive side of predestination—that God chose some to be saved. This positive side of predestination is also called election. The people God chose are the “elect” who become like Christ. There is a negative side to predestination—those who are ultimately condemned to judgment. This side of predestination is called reprobation. Those God does not choose to be saved are the “reprobate.”

Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle says that when a lot of people think of doctrine of predestination, they think of the old children’s game “Duck, Duck, Goose.” But this is not the sweet game our three and four year olds might be playing right now. Instead it becomes a game of “Duck, Duck, Damned,” where God picks some people to be saved and others to fry in hell.

Obviously, God’s decision to choose some, but not others, is far more serious than a children’s game. The Bible’s teaching on the issue is very important, because it affects the way we understand so many other parts of the Bible’s teachings. So this morning, I’d like to make four points about the doctrine of predestination. First, the doctrine of predestination is Biblical. Second, it is a key to God’s plan of salvation. Third, the doctrine of predestination shows God’s glory. And finally, the doctrine of predestination can give us comfort.

Turn with me, if you would, to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. If you are using a pew Bible, you can find the passage on page 1817. In just a moment, I will be reading from chapter 1 of Ephesians, starting at verse 3, and ending with verse 14.

Paul, the writer of this letter, is known for writing long sentences. His sentences wouldn’t pass muster with the English teachers among us. In the Bible translation in our pews, the translators turned the 12 verses of our text into eight sentences. In a version I often use at home, the English Standard Version, there are only five sentences in those 12 verses. But in the original Greek, Paul wrote the entire passage as one single sentence. I think that as he wrote it, he may have become so caught up in God’s glory that he forgot to divide his thoughts into sentences. As we read the passage, perhaps you can pick up some of Paul’s exuberance and join him in praising God.

Hear the word of God from Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 3 through 14:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.

III. The Doctrine of Predestination is Biblical

“It’s just not fair!”

My student had a pained look on her face. OK, that’s not so uncommon, but this look wasn’t just put on.

I asked what she thought was so unfair. It turned out that she was upset by my statement that only those people who God chooses are saved. “It’s so random,” she complained.

My student’s complaint is not at all uncommon. I remember one evening last fall, when my son Micah out of the blue informed me that the Bible says that people have free will. I wasn’t sure what he meant by this, or even why he brought it up, so I pressed him on what he meant.

I asked him why he brought up the topic. He thought a few seconds and then said he wanted an explanation of how it works that we have free choice but God already knows what we’re going to do. Micah enjoys playing basketball, so I asked him if he was talking about things like choosing whether to pull up and take a jump shot or drive for the layup, or if he was talking about whether we can choose to follow God. “Both,” he said.

Well, I tried to give an explanation he would understand. I told him that we do have free choice. So we are able to choose between a jumper and a lay-up. But I told him I also wanted him to understand that when it comes to choosing God or being chosen by him, we can’t choose God. In fact, on our own, we can only choose to hate God.

He didn’t like this answer. “How can that be?” he asked. “WE choose.” “No,” I said. “God chooses us. It might feel like we choose, I suppose, since the Holy Spirit is working in our hearts, but we don't choose.”

I told him that when it talks about our salvation, the Bible uses the word “predestined.” This means that God has already decided in advance who is saved and who is not. I explained the history of the Canons of Dort, which I described to him as “a big meeting 400 years ago of lots of Christians in Holland who met to discuss free will and predestination. I told him that these Christians decided that the Bible teaches that we are unable to choose to follow God by ourselves because we are too full of sin to make that decision on our own. I also told him that our church follows that decision from 400 years ago.

I think many of us have had similar experiences. Predestination is a hard teaching to accept. But the doctrine of predestination is Biblical. The word appears twice in our text. In verse 5 it says that “In love [God] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.” In verse 11, Paul says that in Christ “we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.

We also see the word “predestination” in four other New Testament passages. In two passages, Acts 4:28 and 1 Corinthians 2:7, the word refers to God’s determining the events of world history ahead of time. But like the use of the word in our text this morning, the other two uses of the word refer to God’s decision, before the world began, about the destiny of individual people.

Take a look at Romans 8:29-30, where Paul writes “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

While Jesus didn’t use the word predestination in his teachings, we can see the concept in his words. For example, in Matthew 22:14, Jesus says that “…many are called, but few are chosen.” And in John 15:16, Jesus says “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

When we look at Scripture, it is difficult to simply deny that the Bible teaches some form of predestination. The doctrine of predestination is biblical. But there is some difference of opinion over how exactly God predestined some to eternal life and others to eternal death.

Most Christians who say they don’t believe in predestination, but rather on the free will of humans to choose, don’t actually deny the word “predestination.” Rather, they simply take a different view of predestination than most Reformed folks. For example, many churches today teach that predestination is based on God’s “foreknowledge.”

To them, foreknowledge means that God knew before the world began that certain people would freely choose Christ as their Savior once they heard the gospel message. Because God knew that they would choose Christ, God predestined them to salvation.

In this view, “foreknowledge” is just God’s knowing what individuals will choose of their own free will. However, I would argue that those who hold this view misunderstand the meaning of the word “foreknowledge.”

Listen again to Romans 8:29: For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” God’s “foreknowing” didn’t come first, before his making his choice. No, God’s foreknowledge is directly connected to what he does—choosing who will be redeemed.

Every time the Greek word we usually translate as “foreknowledge” appears, it is always directly connected to his active choice to save certain people.

We see this, for example, in Acts 2:23, where Peter teaches the Jews on Pentecost that Jesus “was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

God’s foreknowledge is always directly connected to his act of predestination. His foreknowledge doesn’t cause him to predestine some to be saved. Rather, his foreknowledge is part of his act of choosing.

Now, I’m not going to condemn those who hold to the other view. But, I am convinced that the better interpretation of what the Bible says is the one that says that God chooses us, we can’t choose him.

The doctrine of predestination is biblical. And as such, it is a key part of God’s plan of salvation. An understanding that God chooses us in love helps us to better understand how God works out his salvation in each of us who he has chosen for eternal life.

IV. The Doctrine of Predestination is a Key to God’s Plan of Redemption

So let’s move on to see how the doctrine of predestination is a key to God’s plan for saving us, his plan of redemption.

A. Our need for redemption

Before we can understand God’s plan to save us, we need to know about our need to be saved. This can be a tough bite to chew, especially nowadays. Do you remember Stuart Smalley? Senator Al Franken, before he went into politics, played Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live. Smalley’s catch phrase was “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and dog-gone it, people like me.”

We all laughed when he said this, because we recognized the spirit of our age in this ridiculous character. We all want to believe that we are good enough, we are smart enough, and people like us. But the Bible is clear that this just isn’t the case.

As Genesis 6:5 says, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

B. God’s plan of redemption

Fortunately for us, God already had a plan in place—his glorious plan of redemption, a plan to predestine certain people for salvation from among the ranks of the sinful. It is that plan about which Paul is bursting forth in praise in our text this morning.

That plan starts with God making a choice to save us! Because we have been predestined to be God’s chosen, we can hear Jesus’ gospel call to repent and be saved. And once we hear that call, the Holy Spirit works within us to give us a new heart, a heart that leads us to faith and repentance.

If you look close, you might be able to see an interesting pattern in our text this morning. Verses 3-6 tell us that if we are Christians, it’s because the Father has chosen us. God “has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing,” and “he chose us in him before the creation of the world.” Verses 5 and 6 tell us that “In love [God] predestined us to be adopted as his sons,” and that this is a gift of grace that God has “freely given us.” If we are Christians, it is because the Father has chosen us.

Look next at verses 7-12. They tell us that if we are Christians, it’s because the Son has redeemed us. Paul tells us that “we have redemption in [Christ’s] blood.” Verses 9 and 10 say that God’s will for those he desired to save came to be through Christ’s work. Christ came to earth calling us to faith and repentance, then dying so we could be saved. If we are Christians, it’s because the Son has redeemed us.

Finally, look at verses 13 and 14. If we are Christians, it’s because the Spirit has sealed us. “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.” The Holy Spirit’s work in us, giving us a new heart, guarantees us that we are made right before God and are adopted into his family as God’s children. If we are Christians, it’s because the Spirit has sealed us.

Now, while the doctrine of predestination is a key to God’s plan of redemption, we have to admit that we don’t understand fully how this plan works. But what we do know is that the doctrine of predestination is a key to God’s plan of redemption. And not only that, God’s choice is based on His will for His glory.

V. The Doctrine of Predestination Shows God’s Glory

The doctrine of predestination shows God’s glory.

Look again at verses 11 and 12 of our text. “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

If we were to sum up the whole point of Paul’s words in our text this morning in two words, those words would be “God’s glory!” Paul’s emphasis throughout is on the glory of God as it is revealed in our salvation. He says in verse 6 that the plan of the Father to save us from sin has as its ultimate goal “the praise of his glorious grace.” In verse 12, the work of Christ in bringing about our salvation ends in “the praise of His glory.” And in verse 14, Paul says that the Holy Spirit is given to us as a guarantee of our salvation “to the praise of His glory.”

If we made any contribution toward our own salvation, we would be gaining praise for ourselves. We would no longer be boasting that we are saved because the Father has chosen us, the Son has redeemed us, and the Spirit has sealed us. Paul spoke directly against this idea in Galatians 6:14, when he said “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

There is no room in God’s plan either for our own work or our own glory. When salvation is complete, the only thing we can say is “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.” And that is exactly what Paul is saying in our text. The doctrine of predestination shows God’s glory.

VI. The Doctrine of Predestination Can Give Us Comfort

Finally, the doctrine of predestination can give us comfort. Earlier, I mentioned the discussion I had with my son Micah last fall. I thought about why he might be so upset. A friend suggested that Micah’s questions were a response to a growing conviction that he is one of God’s children. And that reminded me of that student from years ago, the one with pained look on her face who fretted that God’s choosing some to be saved and not others seemed so random.

In a way, predestination is random, at least to us humans. Our minds can’t fathom why God would choose some and not others. We know all humans are sinful and deserve punishment and death. We recognize that Jesus Christ’s willingness to bear the punishment and death we deserved is an incomprehensible act of undeserved mercy. We can even say, as I did to my Sunday School student, that God works according to a good and merciful plan, but a plan we do not completely understand. Yet God’s decision to save some and allow others to remain in their sin still bothers us.

Another student in that class made a wise statement: maybe we ought to simply praise God for the salvation He’s given us and not worry about who is elect and who is reprobate. That student was absolutely right—God is God, and He does what He does to bring honor and glory to His name. We bring more glory to God by living lives of gratitude for his merciful acts than by dwelling on figuring out the details of how He decided to whom He would give His greatest gift.

But once we made that point in class, it became apparent that there was more going on in head of the girl with the pained look. She looked directly at me and asked “But what if you believe in God and do good, but it turns out you weren’t one of the ones chosen?” It was then that I realized that this was more than just the standard teenage complaint about “fairness.” This was a crisis of faith. And that’s when it struck me that if we truly understand predestination, then even the cold, dark truth of total depravity, that we are so helplessly lost in sin that without God that we can do nothing righteous, even that can bring us comfort.

If our sin is truly so pervasive that we humans are totally unable to turn to God and do what is right and pleasing in his eyes, then the only way we can be saved is by something superhuman—by God.

If we recognize in ourselves a faith and belief in God, even if that faith seems weak, and regularly challenged, then that faith had to have come from God. If we recognize in ourselves a desire to do what is right in God’s eyes, even if that desire is often accompanied by temptations to do otherwise, then that desire had to have come from God. And if God, as we confess, is almighty and all-powerful, then the very fact that He is working in our lives ought to persuade us that He has extended His mercy to us and we can rely on that mercy. Once we recognize that God has chosen us, we can rest assured that that choosing is for all eternity

The fact that God chooses us, that we belong to him, can be disconcerting to us humans, who like to think that we remain in control. But that choosing, that assurance that we belong to God, gives us comfort that we belong “body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”

At the end of the class we read Q&A 1 from the Catechism. The pained look didn’t completely disappear from the student’s face. But I am convinced that God had provided a measure of comfort to one of his chosen.

VII. Conclusion

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Predestination, the teaching that God alone chooses those who are saved in Christ, is hard for us humans to swallow. It rubs against our grain to realize that we are so full of sin that, left to our own devices, we would always choose rebellion and death. But if we understand this teaching, we have the key to a deep understanding of God’s plan of salvation. If we understand this teaching, we can experience true comfort in Christ. And if we understand this teaching, we will understand the immense greatness of God’s glory.

Amen.